Users typically utilize DNS services to resolve name requests for network based assets in accordance with known techniques, which include the user entering a URL and the DNS system translating the URL to a numeric address associated with the URL, thereby allowing for routing of the request and subsequent retrieval of the information that the user is requesting.
Existing computing systems use various techniques to track user Internet activity and this tracked activity can provide many useful options for systems supporting the Internet operations. For example, a common technique to track user activity includes using local software modules or data, such as cookies, resident on a local processing device to monitor the user activity. As described herein, user activity generally refers to the accessing of different web pages and other Internet-based resources.
Another technique for monitoring activity can include monitoring the user's activity where a user logs into a particular Internet system and then navigates within or through this system. One example may be a user logging into a network, such as a corporate server or an internet service provider (“ISP”) network. The user activities can be tracked by monitoring the URL associated with a given item of content that the user retrieves, which indicates the locations that a user visits. Other techniques include accessing cache information associated with various browsers, where the cache includes stored information about the users Internet activities.
There are also numerous user-tracking systems available in the marketplace, where such systems are readily employed by web sites and marketing companies to access and monitor Internet traffic. These systems track user activities by recording how often a particular web page is accessed and the time of access, with this tracking information readily usable for determining corresponding metrics associated with content on corresponding web pages.
Existing systems, however, are limited to harnessing the user's computer to collect this information, monitoring the traffic itself or using third-party traffic applications to determine the activity information. There are not currently any traffic collection systems that utilize DNS to collect web request information for use in determining attention data. This information can be very valuable when used by data processing algorithms that analyze the data for particular trends.
These trends, as determined from the activity data, can be used to augment many of the existing business models associated with Internet-activity, including the placement of advertisement, as well as improving relevancy of search results. For example, when an Internet search is conducted, the ordering of the search results can be modified based, in part, on the trend data to place more popular or time-based pertinent information higher in the rankings, thereby improving the relevance of the search results. Similarly, advertising associated with the search results can be improved by providing advertisements consistent with current trends.